Satu Palva — Systems and computational neuroscience
Human brain function emerges from complex brain dynamics distributed over spatial and temporal hierarchies. The research carried out in my laboratory is focused on understanding these complex systems dynamics and large-scale network activities. In particular, our work focuses on uncovering the mechanistic role of neuronal oscillations (brain rhythms) and brain criticality in the dynamic emergence of cognitive functions and behaviors, and conversely, their deficits in brain diseases. Our research uses cutting-edge multimodal neuroimaging combining electrophysiology (MEG/EEG/iEEG) with MRI-based methods and brain stimulation (TMS, tACS) to identify spatio-temporal neuronal patterns causally related to behavior.
Satu's group members
Director
Professor Satu Palva, PhD, Docent
E-mail: satu.palva(@)helsinki.fi, satu.palva(@)glasgow.ac.uk
Tel: +358 50 4484 742
Postdoctoral researchers
Ehtasham Javed, PhD (at University of Helsinki)
Ehtasham has a PhD in Methods, Models and Instrumentation for Neuroimaging from Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences,
Gabriele D'Annunzio University, Chieti-Pescara, Italy, where he developed a method to analyze the spectral associations of spatial topographies calculated using microstate analysis.
He joined the group in September 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher and is studying dynamic multi-scale oscillation networks using MEG data.[Researchgate] [Google Scholar]
Felix Siebenhühner, PhD (at University of Helsinki)
Felix obtained his MSc in physics at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. He then researched abnormal neuronal synchrony in schizophrenia with Danielle Bassett in Santa Barbara, USA, before joining our group in 2012.
In his doctoral research, he investigated cross-frequency synchrony in human MEG and SEEG data and graduated in 2019. He is now part of he Virtual Brain Cloud project and analyzing resting-state data. [TUHAT] [Google Scholar] [LinkedIn]
Gabriela Cruz, PhD (at University of Glasgow)
Gaby obtained a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Glasgow (2014). She has researched neurofeedback and the functional relevance of neural variability for cognitive performance in healthy and brain injured population.
She joined our group in August 2019, and is investigating how local neuronal oscillations, their large-scale interactions, and dynamics are related to visual perception and attention.[Researchgate] [Google Scholar]
Wenya Liu, PhD (at Aalto University and University of Helsinki)
Wenya obtained her doctoral degree at the Faculty of Information Technology, Jyväskylä.
She joined our lab in December 2021 and is working on behavioural phenotyping and MEG data analysis as part of the 'Plasticity Stimulation in the Treatment of Anhedonia' project.
This project, which is funded by the Wellcome Leap Multi-Channel Psych research program, aims to study the effects of video games on depression symptoms and brain dynamics. [Google Scholar]
Máté Gyurkovics, PhD (at University of Glasgow)
Máté received his PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2019 where he investigated the behavioural and neural correlates of dynamic changes in attentional control in adolescents and adults using EEG.
During his first post-doc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he studied the neuroscience of aging and attentional control, with a focus on the time-frequency domain of EEG data.
He joined the lab in November 2021, investigating neural networks observable with M/EEG during working memory operations.[Google Scholar]
Nedjeljka Ivica, PhD (at University of Helsinki)
Nedjeljka obtained her PhD from Lund University, Sweden, in 2018 where she investigated cortico-striatal-thalamic networks in healthy and Parkinsonian-like rodents.
She then worked as a postdoc on developing and evaluating novel deep-brain stimulation electrode in rodents and pigs. She joined our lab in June 2023 and is currently investigating neuronal oscillations and synchronizations between brain areas during the resting-state in rodents.
[Researchgate]
David Corredor, PhD (at University of Helsinki)
David obtained his PhD in neuroscience at Paris Science et letter (PSL) University in France. His research focuses on clinical brain imaging to further understand the system-level organization of the brain in psychiatric disorders.
He joined the group in March 2024 to study the brain structure-function relationship in depression using multimodal imaging.[Researchgate]
Aniol Santo-Angles, PhD (at University of Helsinki)
Aniol has a PhD in Medicine and Translational Research from the University of Barcelona (Spain), where he investigated interindividual variability of brain function in schizophrenia by means of task-based and resting-state fMRI.
He has also researched the brain mechanisms underlying working memory at New York University Abu Dhabi, using MEG to study effective connectivity. Aniol joined the lab in September 2024 to investigate the neural geometry of memory representations using MEG and EEG.
[Researchgate]
PhD students
Hamed Haque, MSc (at University of Helsinki)
Hamed has a BSc in Psychology from International Islamic University Malaysia and an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of York.
He joined as a doctoral student in 2016 and is investigating the neural correlates and mechanisms of visual perception and visual working memory using EEG and MEG. [TUHAT] [LinkedIn]
Judith Sattelberger, MSc (at University of Helsinki)
Judith studied Psychology at the University of Vienna, graduating with a Msc, and joined our group as a doctoral student in March 2021.
She is now investigating neural correlates of visual attention and working memory with MEG and EEG. [Researchgate]
Maria Vesterinen, MA (at University of Helsinki)
Maria graduated with a MA in Psychology from the University of Jyväskylä in 2019.
She joined our group in April 2021 and is currently helping to design experiments investigating the neuronal dynamics of cognitive control. 
Alexandra Andersson, MSc (at University of Helsinki)
Alexandra has a MSc (Tech) in Human Neuroscience and Technology from Aalto University.
She joined the lab in 2021 and is currently investigating the neural correlates and mechanisms of visual working memory using EEG and MEG.
Paula Partanen, MSc (at University of Helsinki)
Paula has a BSc in psychology from the University of Groningen and recently obtained a master's degree in neuroscience at the University of Helsinki.
Paula joined the lab in 2021 and is currently investigating in vivo brain activity electrophysiology in mice.
Felipe Branco de Paiva, MD (at University of Helsinki)
Felipe obtained his MD from Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas da Santa Casa de Sao Paulo in Brazil.
He investigated deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treatment-resistant depression at the University of Freiburg, Germany, followed by a Research Fellow position at the Cleveland Clinic, USA, where he investigated DBS for Parkinson’s disease.
He then researched EEG brain network topology in epilepsy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, as an American Epilepsy Society Postdoctoral Fellow. Felipe joined the lab in the fall of 2024 to study cortical traveling waves, their relationship to critical phenomena in the brain, and their potential role in improving phenotypic classification of MDD.
[Google Scholar]
Contact:
To contact use firstname.lastname@helsinki.fi, firstname.lastname@aalto.fi, or firstname.lastname@glasgow.ac.uk.